Step 2 – Make the case and build enthusiasm

Last month we covered Step 1 – Give your credit union’s employees a voice, check that out in case you missed it! In the article, we discussed how (and why) to involve your employees in strategic planning and the change management process – whether that’s a new branching model, hybrid working strategy, or any other major change that impacts how your employees support your mission.

The next step in the change management process is aligning your credit union’s goals with employee needs and finding compromises that leave everyone satisfied. The challenge is that these two things can appear mutually exclusive – at least at a surface level. When you dig deeper though, you’re likely to see a different story.

This is critical for any major organizational change. If the employees are unsatisfied, they may be more engaged with the job search than their jobs. Yet it’s still critical that their work align with your mission.

Take a deeper look

Let’s look deeper into the remote work example. The big divide today is that most workers want to work remotely, yet most credit unions would like to have employees working in the office. How do you build enthusiasm for a hybrid policy that brings employees in a few days a week?

From Step 1, you should understand why employees are hesitant to return and what they expect out of their workplace. For many employees, there’s a major disconnect between their expectation of the workplace and the reality of it.

For example, research by HubSpot shows that 60% of 18–24-year-old workers and 54% of 24-44-year-old workers believe that a lack of in-person face time has had a significant negative impact on their career growth. There’s a big expectation that the workplace will support their professional relationships and career development.

But for far too many employees a return to the office has them joining zoom meetings from the office. They meet with coworkers who are working from home, or worse check in with managers who still don’t come into the office. In this scenario, they aren’t realizing the benefits that they believe should come with in-person work and that their commute time was wasted.

Looking into the nuance of both the leadership and employee perspectives, what at first seemed like mutually exclusive policies – remote work or returning to the office – are actually complementary. It’s just that a framework to enable people to do in-person work more effectively needs to be developed.

Build enthusiasm

The key to getting buy-in for any change in initiative is clarity and communication. Picture yourself in a sales role, and the product you are selling is a new cross selling process in the branch, a hybrid work arrangement, or any other organizational change. You want to hype your team up and get them bought in to the new thing.

Take another example, two credit unions shifting to a new universal associate branching model.

The first credit union has executives and consultants developing a new process, and then comes a training day where they tell the employees what they need to do to run the branch.

The second is Verity Credit Union, which involved their employees in the process. In parallel to the branch design and leading up to opening, they taped out layouts on the ground and role-played member and associate roles. Through these exercises and feedback, they were able to refine the branching model, policies, and processes. And employees felt a strong sense of ownership over the branch success – because it was their success as well.

Come opening day, which of these credit unions do you think delivers a better member experience?

Stay tuned for the final step

The final step in driving a lasting change process is recognizing that the project doesn’t end when you cut the ribbon. It’s an ongoing process and requires lessons-learned and continual refinement. Stay tuned for next month when we walk you through this important last stage.

In the meantime, check out other articles at momentumbuilds.com or reach out below if you have any questions or would like to learn more.